Pink tree shaker raises breast cancer awareness

Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Jonnalee Henderson of Arbuckle, Calif.-based Spooner-Henderson Orchard Care climbs aboard a tree shaker that Yuba City, Calif.-based Orchard Machinery Corp. painted pink for breast cancer awareness. The shaker was displayed at the Colusa Farm Show before being taken to the World Ag Expo in Tulare, Calif.

A hot pink tree shaker has been a popular exhibit at farm shows in Colusa and Tulare, Calif. The shaker was painted pink in honor of two women who died of breast cancer.

COLUSA, Calif. — Jonnalee Henderson was impressed when she saw the walnut and almond tree shaker, painted hot pink, for the first time.

“Wow!” she exclaimed as the shaker was displayed at the farm show here. “This is awesome!”

The shaker was customized for the Arbuckle, Calif.-based harvesting operation Henderson co-owns with her brother, Wesley Henderson, and brother-in-law, Jake Spooner.

The project was done by the Yuba City, Calif.-based Orchard Machinery Corp. as a way to raise breast cancer awareness. Brenda Mayo, the wife of company owner Don Mayo, recently died of the disease, marketer Greg Kriss said.

Kriss found an enthusiastic buyer in the Hendersons, whose aunt, Linda Meyer Henderson, also succumbed to the disease. The two women’s names are painted on the shaker.

“Don has been wanting to do a breast cancer awareness shaker for a long time,” Kriss said. “Then to have a customer that has suffered the same loss, it kind of made sense. We presented it to them, and they were on board.”

During almond and walnut harvest, the shakers move through the orchards and dislodge all the nuts from the trees, then sweepers come along and collect them all to be hulled and processed.

Typically the equipment is yellow or green, or perhaps red. But the shaker that will be used by the Hendersons’ business, Spooner-Henderson Orchard Care, has a bright pink base and is adorned with various designs, including a depiction of the Sutter Buttes and a pink breast cancer ribbon painted on the door.

After its unveiling at the Colusa Farm Show last week, the shaker was brought to this week’s World Ag Expo in Tulare, Calif. However, the shaker won’t just be relegated to farm shows, Jonnalee Henderson said.

“This is just going to be used as much or more than any other shaker,” she said.

The shaker has gotten a warm reception from passers-by at the farm shows, Kriss said.

“Once they find out what it’s for, everyone has been really supportive and thought it was a very nice gesture,” he said.